


then she kissed me

by icepools



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Coming Out, F/F, School Dances, Songfic, but not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2019-09-06
Packaged: 2020-10-10 03:37:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20521310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icepools/pseuds/icepools
Summary: They were 15 when they had their first kiss.or: el and max dance, kiss, and fall in love.





	then she kissed me

**Author's Note:**

> insp. by "then he kissed me" by the crystals

They were 15 when they had their first kiss.

It was the winter of 1986, and they were at their school’s winter dance. Definitely a step up from their middle school’s dances, but not nearly as good as it could be.

Or, unfortunately, as fun as it could be.

Max, along with Lucas and Mike, were sitting at a table off to the side of the dance floor. Will had disappeared a long time ago, to god knows where, and Dustin and El were getting drinks and snacks for the five of them. (Six, if Will ever showed his face again.) The three remaining at the table were bored out of their minds.

Mike said something about the dance ending in about an hour and a half, but Max only heard half of it, staring blankly towards the snack table. She watched as Dustin poured drinks and handed them off to El, who was laughing, probably at something Dustin had said.

She looked pretty. Her hair was curled and pinned back and she wore a purple dress that made her skin look gorgeous.

She looked really, _ really _pretty.

“Max?”

Max nearly jumped out of her skin, but turned to look at Lucas anyway. She nodded, prompting him to continue speaking.

“Mike and I need to use the bathroom. Might try and find Will, too. Are you okay alone?” he asked, sincerely. Max merely smiled at him.

He smiled back and, along with Mike, stood up and left for the bathroom (and Will).

Max wasn’t alone for long.

About two minutes after the boys left, the Madonna song that was playing ended, and the opening of _ Almost Paradise _blasted through the speakers. People, one boy and one girl per couple, found each other and got into the cliche “middle school slow dance” position.

Max sighed. She wanted to dance, just a little bit, but there was only one _ person _she wanted to dance with.

She looked up from her lap, and made eye contact with El, who was walking towards the table, carrying five cups of Coke and a couple cups of pretzels and chips. She was definitely going to drop it all. Max was quick to rise from her seat and help her bring the refreshments to the table.

“Where’s Dustin?” she asked, once the load had been taken off El.

“Went to find someone to dance with. Mike and Lucas?”

“Looking for Will, I think. Or peeing.” El laughed at this, softly. Her laugh made Max smile.

They set the cups onto the table, and Max went to sit down, but El spoke again.

“Can we dance?”

She sounded confident, like she didn’t know what dancing during a slow song _ meant. _

“You mean...together?” Max asked, quietly, her cheeks growing redder by the second. El nodded. “Well, um, El, girls don’t really slow dance together,”

What was she doing? She _ wanted _ to dance. But she knew Hawkins, and she _ really _knew Hawkins High.

El scrunched up her face in confusion, brows furrowing. “But Jennifer Hayes and Kathy Morris were dancing three minutes ago,”

Max frowned. “Yeah, but, this is a _ slow song. Couples _dance to slow songs. Not friends,”

El blinked, once, twice, then tilted her head a little. “Are those...rules?”

“Yeah,” Max sighed sadly, “Rules.”

There was a silence between them for a second. The song was nearly over, anyway.

“Don’t we make our own rules?”

This struck something in Max. She didn’t know what, but when El finished her sentence, she stood up, grabbed her hand and grinned widely.

“Yeah, yeah we do.”

El grinned right back, and Max lead them to a spot that was heavily populated by other couples.

Not that El and Max were a couple.

Max was prepared to go for the classic “hands on shoulders, hands on waist, at arm’s length” approach to their dance, but El opted for a much closer position. Their foreheads were a mere three inches apart. Max didn’t have a mirror, but if she did, she knew she would see a redhead with an equally red face.

El seemed to take notice of this, because she spoke up again. “Are you...okay? I can…” she trailed off, going to take a step back. Max stopped her quickly.

“No!” _ Too loud. _ “No, no, it’s okay. It’s...nice.”

She said “nice” a little softer, but El still heard it, still smiled.

They stayed like this for the rest of the song. Happy.

As _ Almost Paradise _ came to a close, Max felt her heart sink. They would have to let go soon. _ Max didn’t want to let go. _

So she stared at El’s face, taking in every inch of it. El stared right back, though Max wasn’t sure if she, too, was memorizing every little detail.

Much to her delight, _ Open Arms _ by Journey started playing when _ Almost Paradise _ended. Another three minutes like this. She could do that.

She looked over El once again, gaze settling on her slightly parted lips.

_ God, I could kiss you. _

She didn’t.

The song ended, and the girls reluctantly separated. Max took El’s hand in hers and squeezed it briefly, before letting go and heading back to their table, where four boys waited for them.

“Will! There you are, where _ were _you?” Max stared at him, blinking. He laughed, a little nervously, and shrugged. 

“Around,” he mumbled. Max gave a quizzical look to Lucas, who just shook his head, as if to say _ drop it. He won’t budge. _

Without saying another word, she and El sat down at the table next to each other.

“What about you, Max?” Will piped up again, a tiny smile on his face, “Where were _ you_?”

He looked at her, then at El, who narrowed her eyes at her step-brother. Max eyed him harshly.

“Around.” she mocked, and El snorted.

Will looked at the two girls for a second, then shrugged, and went back to talking with Dustin about their next Dungeons and Dragons campaign.

The rest of the dance was a blur of laughing, eating, and a little more dancing. (No more slow dancing, though, which Max was slightly disappointed by.)

After an hour and fifteen minutes, the lights came up, the music stopped abruptly, and the students were ushered out of the gymnasium, the party included.

As they grabbed their coats and hats, El came up behind Max.

“Max? Do you want to come over tonight?” she asked. Max turned to look at her. Her face was _ definitely _pink.

“S-sure,” she replied, giving a weak smile. El hesitated for a second before smiling back.

Winter clothes on, Max and El said their goodbyes to the boys, who stuffed themselves in Steve’s car. He looked exhausted the second he realized he was driving all four of them. El gave him a sympathetic smile as he drove away.

Now they waited, in the freezing cold, for Joyce to arrive and drive them home.

It didn’t take long, but it felt like a lifetime of silence.

Finally, they saw Joyce’s car come to the curb. El smiled at her and opened the back door, climbing into the seat on the left. Max took the right and closed the door behind her.

“Where’s Will?” Joyce asked, after saying quick hellos to the girls.

“Mike’s,” El replied simply. Joyce smiled and nodded. Max noticed that her shoulders relaxed a bit. She couldn’t blame her.

“Just us girls then, huh?” she joked. El laughed, Max following shortly after.

Other than that, the drive was just a silent as when the two waited for Joyce to actually show up.

They arrived at the Byers house, and exited the car. El whispered something to Joyce, who nodded and went inside, shutting the door quietly so she didn’t wake the neighbours.

“What was that about?” Max inquired, after Joyce was gone.

El turned to her, bottom lip between her teeth. Max couldn’t really tell in the dark, but her cheeks looked red. (Max _ also _noted that her skin looked gorgeous in the dark.)

“Are you okay?” When she didn’t answer, Max spoke again. “El?”

“I, um, I liked...dancing. With you. Dancing with you. I liked it,” El stumbled over her words, which wasn’t uncommon on a regular basis, but it seemed less about literally not knowing what to say and more about nerves. _ Why was she nervous? _

_ Maybe… _

“Me...me too,” Max replied softly.

“But you said...girls don’t slow dance. It’s,” she paused, trying to articulate her words. “Against the rules,”

Max cringed at her wording, but nodded anyways. El wasn’t finished, though.

“Is girls liking girls against the rules, too?”

Max blinked at her, surprised at the question. “Why?” She knew why. “Do _ you _like a girl?”

El just looked at her.

“I want to kiss you.”

Then she did.

Then she kissed Max.

It was quick and cautious. Neither of them had kissed a girl before. It was strange for a fraction of a second, and then it was _ everything. _

Max barely had the time to cup El’s cheek with her hand before they separated. El’s eyes were blown wide, but she looked happy.

“Okay?” she asked, biting her lip again. Max just nodded and kissed her again, barely longer than the first.

They stared at each other for a second, before El stepped back. She didn’t look scared, or regretful, which eased Max a little.

“Let’s go inside?”

“Yeah, sure.”

They didn’t bring it up for the rest of the night.

It’s another two years before they kiss again.

The Byers moved to Ohio during the summer of 1987, bringing El along with them. 

She wasn’t complaining; she _ loved _ the Byers more than she loved most people, or most families, and she really did love Ohio. It wasn’t Hawkins (it wasn’t _ home_) but it was nice, and she liked her school.

During her two years in her new city, she had gotten much closer with the Byers boys, especially Will. She could talk to Jonathan about anything, and he was a protective older brother (when he was around), but Will was different. They were a lot alike, with how they got a good chunk of their lives taken away by supernatural creatures and experiments and the US government. 

They were _ also _a lot alike in the way they were both gay. 

Will had come out to her just before spring break in 1988, and she told him about her and Max not too long after. 

_ Max. _

They, of course, _ had _seen each other. The Byers made frequent visits to Hawkins, every couple of weekends, and El was no different. 

However, she and Max hadn’t gotten any closer, and hadn’t talked about _ that night_.

El considered it the best night of her life. That was the night she had her first kiss, her first kiss that made her _ feel something_.

She thought about it a lot. She wished she brought it up the night it happened. She wondered if Max thought about it, too.

She wondered if Max had kissed anyone else. 

She probably had. She was pretty. Beautiful, actually; she could kiss anyone she wanted and they would _ thank her. _

El would. 

It was now October, 1988, and El and Will were driving down to Hawkins to visit their friends. 

“Are you gonna be okay? You know, you and Max. Alone. I can come, if you want. I’m sure the others won’t mind me missing _ one _arcade day—“ Will was rambling. He had started doing that more, since moving. El wasn’t sure why. 

“Will, we’re fine. We’ve been alone since then,” she said, smiling at him. He sighed and smiled back, weakly. 

“I know. You’re sure it won’t be weird, though? Seriously, I can come, and bring Mike, or _ someone_—“

“Will.”

“Sorry,” he sighed again, looking at her. She gave him a look that said _ eyes on the road, dumbass, _and he looked back at the dash. “I just don’t want you to…you know.”

El nodded. She _ did _know, even if they’d never mentioned it. Neither of them wanted El and Max’s friendship to be ruined because they kissed a couple times. 

About ten minutes passed in almost complete silence. The only sound in the car was The Clash playing on the speaker. _ Rock the Casbah _was nearing a close when Will spoke up. 

“El, can I ask you something? About Max?”

She merely nodded. 

“Do you still like her?”

She looked down. _ Did she? _

“I think so,”

A pause. Then, “Do you love her?”

El frowned. She didn’t know. She hadn’t ever really _ loved _someone before. Romantically, anyway. 

“I don’t know,” She looked at him, “I’ve never been in love. I don’t know what it’s like,”

Will nodded understandingly. He turned the music down and looked at her, stopping at a stop sign. 

“I think…you will know. When you are. Which, I think…” He started the car again, turning his eyes back to the road, “You might be.”

He didn’t say anything after that, though El wished he would. 

_ Was she? In love with Max? _

_ Maybe. _

They didn’t speak for the rest of the drive.

Will dropped El and her bags off at Max’s house, then drove off to join his friends at the arcade. Leaving her alone on the front porch.

After staring at the door for a minute, she knocked, once, twice, then—

“Hey!”

The door opened, and Max was revealed. El grinned at her. Max could do that to a person.

She had definitely grown since 1986. Somehow, she looked even prettier. El didn’t think that could even _ happen_.

“Hi,”

Max ushered her inside, then yelled something to her mother, who yelled right back. They headed upstairs, where El tossed her bags on the bed. 

“So!” Max smiled at her. (_Pretty._) “What do you want to do?”

They ended up watching movies, and reading some of Max’s new comics. Her collection had gotten much bigger, but it was still mostly female superheroes. 

El wondered about what Will said while they were reading an issue of _ Wonder Woman_. 

_ I think you might be. _

El thought she was, too. 

She didn’t really know how to go about it. Did she tell Max? Keep it to herself? She wished Will was there now, to give her some form of advice. 

Not that he knew anything, either. 

“Max,” she spoke up, lifting her head from Max’s shoulder. 

“Hm?”

“Have you…” she paused, searching for the proper words. “ever been in love?”

Max put down the comic book, and looked at El, surprised. “What?”

“Have you ever been in love?” El repeated, as if Max didn’t hear her and wasn’t just confused.

She paused, thinking. She readjusted her position so she was facing El, and stayed silent. Thinking. 

Finally, she spoke. “Maybe,” Another pause. “Why?” El hoped Max knows why. “Have _ you _ever been in love?”

El blinked. 

“Yeah,” she whispered, “I love _ you_.”

She watched Max’s lips curl into a small smile, which widened into a massive, toothy grin. 

“_I love you too, El._”

Then, leaning forward slightly, she kissed El.

El’s memories of their first kiss (_kisses, plural) _ were fuzzy, but she knew that it definitely wasn’t _ this_.

Max held her face gently, rubbing her thumb across her cheekbone. And the way Max _ kissed her_, El was sure she had to have kissed other people. (Girls?)

Max tried to pull away, probably for fear that El wasn’t enjoying it; which was _ not _true, and she confirmed this by placing her hands on Max’s waist and pulling her closer, lengthening their kiss.

Finally, they separated, both unable to keep themselves from grinning. 

“You love me,” El whispered. Max smiled and pressed their foreheads together. 

“I do. And you love me,”

El bit her lip, smile widening. “I do.”

She tilted her head, and kissed Max again. 

It wouldn’t be the last time. 

In the months following their kiss, and eventual get together, there was no shortage of kisses. 

Around January, they told Will and his boyfriend, Alex, and then the rest of the party in early February when El and Will (with Alex, this time) visited Hawkins again. 

It was on March 22, Will’s birthday, that El told Joyce about her and Max. 

The Byers were going to Hawkins the day after, but Max decided she wanted to see her girlfriend a day early. Mike had wanted to come, too, but he couldn’t get the day off of work. 

So Max travelled alone, with only the radio and her thoughts of seeing El after weeks to accompany her. 

When she finally arrived at the Byers residence in Ohio, she practically ran towards the door and knocked quickly.

Alex answered it, and was quick to point her in the direction of El’s room. She thanked him and walked (very quickly) to the bedroom down the hall. 

She knocked on the door, heard a quiet, “Come in,” then opened it gently.

El was laying on her bed, book in hand. She wasn’t dressed up, more dressed down than anything, but she was still the prettiest girl Max had ever seen.

It took her a second to put down her book and look up at Max, but when she did, her face lit up, and she scrambled to her feet, immediately enveloping Max in a tight hug. She hugged right back, nudging the door closed with her foot.

“I missed you,” El whispered, simply. 

“Me, too.”

She pulled her face away from Max’s shoulder and gave her a quick peck on the lips. Max smiled.

They stood there for a moment, before they heard Will searching for Max. El laughed, and Max blushed, looking downwards.

“You didn’t say hi to him, did you,” she said through laughter, more of a statement than a question. Max shrugged.

“Might’ve slipped my mind.”

With El still laughing, and Max linking their pinkies, they exited El’s room, where Will stood, waiting, looking slightly annoyed that his friend hadn’t greeted him but mostly happy to see her.

She was quick to wish him a happy birthday, to make up for lost time, and to wrap him up in a tight hug. (Not as tightly as she hugged El, though. She saved her tightest hugs for her.)

She greeted Joyce, and Alex, for the second time, then, with El, assisted Joyce with the cooking. She was surprised they were even eating a home cooked meal. 

It was right before dinner, though, that El pulled Max aside and told her what she wanted to do tonight. 

“I want to tell Joyce. About _ us_,” she whispered, craning her neck to make sure Joyce wasn’t actually _ around. _

“A-are you sure? What if it doesn’t go well? Then that’s our night _ and _Will’s birthday ruined, not that—“ Max began. El silenced her by placing her index finger on Max’s lips. 

“She knows about Will and Alex, Max. Won’t she be okay with us, too?” she smiled, removing her finger from her girlfriend’s lips. 

Max frowned. “‘Maybe. But people don’t like girls liking girls even more than they don’t like boys liking boys,”

El frowned at this, too. “I know. But we can _ try. _Will said he didn’t care if we messed up his birthday. Got a bit offended when I said we might, actually,”

Max laughed. Sharing this life aspect (being gay, that is) with Will had its benefits, for all of four of them. 

“Let’s do it, then.”

Five minutes later, they were sitting at the dinner table, engaging in surface level conversation. 

“So, Max, are you planning on going to college?” Joyce asked, looking from her food to Max.

“Yeah. I’ve applied to a couple, but I don’t know how that’ll go,” She shrugged. She’d literally only applied to a couple — two random colleges that seemed good enough. 

Joyce nodded, a soft smile visible on her features. “El’s going to Ohio Uni,” she said distantly. Max registered this, then nodded. She heard her say something about Will, but she wasn’t listening. 

Ohio. She could do Ohio. 

There was silence for a while, before El spoke up. 

“Joyce? Can I tell you something?”

Joyce merely nodded. Max looked at El. She seemed nervous. So Max subtly took her hand in her own under the privacy of the table. 

“Um, so, you know…how, uh,” she trailed off. Will gave her an encouraging nod, and Max squeezed her hand tightly. She took a deep breath, and tried again.

“Max and I, we’re, um,” El looked up at Joyce, who was taking in every word. She had put her fork down. Max now noticed that she and the rest of the table had done the same. “We’re dating,” She held Max’s hand even tighter, “And, uh, I’m gay.”

The silence that followed was sickening. Max was terrified, she could tell El was too, and Will and Alex seemed quite nervous as well, despite both being out to Joyce. 

Finally, _ finally_, Joyce said something. 

“That’s wonderful, El. And you, Max. Thank you for telling me,” She reached a hand across the table, and El took it gratefully. Then she reached her other hand, and looked at Max, who let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding in and grabbed Joyce’s hand with a grin spread across her face. 

“I love you both. I’m so, _ so _ proud.”

After that, eating a meal with the Byers (and guest) and singing happy birthday to an embarrassed Will was a piece of cake. 

Six months later, when Will and El were visiting Hawkins again, Max shared some news with El. 

They had spent the day with the entire party, walking around their town which seemed so much smaller to them now, visiting old spots like the arcade and their old middle school.

They visited the Byers’ old house, which was strange, and mostly unnecessary, but everyone was leaving Hawkins, and they didn’t really want to go back, so they said silent goodbyes to their tiny little town and everything in it.

Later on, they separated, the boys heading to Mike’s house (El assumed. They could be going _ anywhere_, but they always did love that stupid basement) and the girls going to Max’s. 

Since 1985, it was much quieter, and much more enjoyable. In a weirdly dark way. 

_ Again_, Max’s comic book collection had expanded. She had a shelf stuffed full of them, and a solid amount on three more shelves. They were also strewn about the floor, bed and chair, but El thought those could fill a reasonably sized shelf, too. 

“So…” Max began. El looked up from her _ Ms. Marvel _comic, meeting Max’s gaze. 

“So?”

Max shifted on the bed, crossing one foot under her other leg. She seemed nervous. 

“Are you okay?” El asked, moving her hand to take her girlfriend’s hand in hers.

Max only nodded. 

“You, uh, _ did _get into that university, right? The one in Ohio?”

El grinned. “I did,” Then, confusion took over, and her smile faltered. “...why?”

Max laughed—at least, it _ sounded _like a laugh. A nervous one, anyway. 

“Okay, so, I did something…kinda crazy. Not really, but, uh…” she trailed off again. Her words made El’s chest tighten. 

“You’re scaring me, Max. What did you do?”

Upon hearing this, Max frantically shook her head. “Oh, no, no, it’s nothing _ bad! _I just…don’t know if you’ll like it.”

El paused, searching Max’s face. Her expression was nervous, scared, even, but her eyes were bright with excitement. 

“Do _ you _like it?”

She nodded. 

“Then so do I.”

Max smiled at this, and squeezed her hand tightly. 

“I applied to Ohio, too,”

Silence. Then, “_What?!_”

Max’s face fell, just a little. “I, um, I don’t know, Joyce just told me where you were going, and I was _ considering _following you anyway, but—“

El leaned forward and gently kissed her lips. 

“You’re going to follow me,”

Max blinked. “Yeah, yeah I am. Is that…bad?”

El just grinned at her. “Not at _ all_.”

They stared at each other for a moment, perfectly content in looking over the face they had memorized. 

“Wait. Did you…_want _to go to Ohio? What are you going to do?” 

El could deal with a lot of things (clearly, she had), but she _ could not _handle her girlfriend not doing something she didn’t want to. 

“It was in my plans, yeah,” Max shrugged. El just laughed. 

“It wasn’t in your plans.”

Max laughed, too. “It wasn’t in my plans. But I do like it. The school. I would’ve applied before if I knew about it,”

El nodded. “And your major?”

“Science. Biology and such,”

She gasped. “_Biology! _My girlfriend’s a genius, ladies and gentlemen!”

Max grinned widely. El shot her a questioning look, and she spoke through the smile. “Say it again,”

“The genius thing?”

“No, no, the girlfriend thing,”

El smiled, too. “_My girlfriend.” _

Max kissed her. Softly, gently. No selfish reasoning behind it. Pure joy. 

“I love you,” El whispered after Max pulled away. She kissed her again. 

“I love you, too.” she murmured quietly, then El kissed her. Then again, and again, and again.

_She was allowed to do that now._


End file.
